Azerbaijani serviceman crosses into Armenia, shoots woman in her home in Syunik

YEREVAN — An Azerbaijani serviceman who crossed into Armenian territory entered a home in the Syunik village of Shaki and shot a local woman in the leg on Thursday, October 1.

Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said the incident was reported to the Interior Ministry’s 112 emergency centre at approximately 2:15 p.m. Police units dispatched to Shaki later established that the shooting had been carried out by an Azerbaijani serviceman, who was subsequently taken into custody. Armenia’s Investigative Committee has opened criminal proceedings.

Shaki village head Ruben Manucharyan said the victim was a 38-year-old local resident and that the incident took place in the presence of her three children. The woman was hospitalized at the Sisian Medical Centre with a gunshot wound to her leg. Health officials said her life was not in danger.

Manucharyan said the armed man had entered the woman’s home before fleeing. He was not wearing a military uniform when local officials encountered him. Law-enforcement officers followed blood traces left by the man and eventually detained him. The Azerbaijani serviceman was himself wounded and was transported by ambulance under guard after his arrest.

The incident came two days after Azerbaijan’s State Security Service informed Armenia’s NSS on September 29 that a serviceman from an Azerbaijani military unit had left his place of service under unclear circumstances. Azerbaijani authorities indicated that the serviceman may have illegally crossed into Armenian territory, after which Armenian and Azerbaijani agencies began search operations.

The Armenian authorities have not explained how the armed serviceman was able to cross the border and reach a populated village despite the warning received from Baku two days earlier. It also remains unclear whether residents of Shaki or surrounding communities were informed that an armed Azerbaijani serviceman might be moving through Armenian territory.

Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office identified the serviceman as Nasim Musayev and said he had disappeared from a military unit in the Lachin area on September 26. The differing timelines leave unanswered when Musayev crossed into Armenia and how long he may have remained inside Armenian territory before Thursday’s shooting. Azerbaijani authorities said contacts with the Armenian side were continuing to clarify the circumstances of his detention and presence in Armenia.

The case recalls another infiltration into Syunik in April 2023, when two Azerbaijani servicemen who had abandoned their positions crossed into Armenia. One of them, Huseyn Akhundov, was later convicted of killing an Armenian security guard and sentenced to life imprisonment, while the second serviceman received an 11-year sentence. Both men were returned to Azerbaijan in December 2023 as part of an exchange in which 32 Armenian detainees were released by Baku.